Say something (I'm giving up on you)
by Linneagb
Summary: AU story. So what if Bree had left Seattle when she heard about the people who went missing? What if she then had gotten on a bus to a certain small town? And what if she had hurt herself she had to be cared for by a certain doctor who we all know and love? Belated birthday present for ActressCeCe. One- shot


**So. I was making this as a birthday present for ActressCeCe. And even though it's too late- happy birthday. I hope you enjoy this. **

I had always hated my birthday. This cold day the eleventh of March wasn't an exception- not even for the matter of fact that I was turning sixteen. As I- walking around in a kiosk on the bus station in some town called Forks- slipped a few chocolate bars and a small box of raisins down the inner pockets of my jacket and then hid behind a shelf pretending to stand and choose between the small bags of sweets while I watched the man standing by the cashier.

He started walking towards the doors, I walked up right behind him and closer and closer until I was almost side by side while I carefully slipped down one of my chocolate bars I hadn't paid for in his back pocket. I didn't like doing this- faking it so someone else would get caught for what I had done- But as it looked right now it was one of the very few choices I had- the others being eating from the trash or just as well starve myself.

Of course the scanners by the doors started beeping with me walking towards the doors right by the side of the man. I fake flinched and looked to the man and then to the cashier who came running. "I- I saw him put something in his pocket." I lied. The man looked confused and I did my very best to hide the fact that I was lying.

As I said I didn't like lying, I didn't like putting the blame on anyone else but I didn't have no other choice. A few weeks ago I had taken all of my saved money, taken from picking up dimes that had been dropped on the street, and paid for a bus ticket to go to Seattle, then from early this morning I had gone from Seattle to a small town called Forks.

I had read the papers in gas stations and read about people- mostly teenagers that had disappeared from Seattle and not been found. I had heard about murders, dead bodies that had been found killed in the cruelest ways. And even though they were only a small part of everybody in Seattle at night- I understood it would be the safest for me to leave town and head for some smaller, calmer place.

I didn't have any money left, but to me the most important thing now was that my so called dad wouldn't be able to find me because I had gone further than to just some time there would be buses straight from Teton to. But even though that was important, now I had no idea what to do. And to get just a little hum on what to do I'd need something to eat, to be able to think at all.

And if doing this meant that I would have to steal and lie. Then at least it would be better than getting caught by the police- because that would mean I would be sent back to my father. And there was no place worth than with Mr. Alexander Tanner- the man that people said to be my father.

The cashier locked to the doors to the kiosk and another one called the police. When the police came I had to stand a bit in the background but as they called me to come closer and I kept on saying that I had seen the man put something in his pocket. No one believed me to have done anything, and when they asked for my name I used the name of a girl at my last school- Jessica Fae.

"You're free to go now Miss Fae" One of the police said at last- I turned around and took my jacket without another word and left through the back door. I hadn't thought that anyone was still looking at me when I pulled up one of the chocolate bars out of my pocket. "HEY. YOU!" I heard behind me, and turned around enough to see one of the cashier's standing in the door.

There wasn't any time to think or hesitate, I just let go of the bar and run for as fast as my short, bony legs carried me down the road and over the street- hearing the cashier shouting behind me I just concentrated on continuing to run- and not where I was running. And maybe that was why I didn't see the bits of ice I would have jumped over or run past if I had only seen them.

It must have been cold tonight, and it was still early in the morning so the frozen water that laid in spots on the streets weren't melted yet. There wasn't any time to avoid them, as I running for what felt like running for my life slipped on one. Things seemed to move in slow motion as my feet flew up in the air while my upper body fell, and then my head hit the stone, icy ground.

And everything went black.

When I started drifting back to reality I felt a pair of something that felt like two pieces of hard ice on both sides of my head and neck, I felt something warm running down my forehead and my wrist was throbbing badly. When I opened my eyes I saw a pale, blonde man whose icy cold hands were holding my head still.

My first intention was to get up on my feet and make a run for it. But barely had I woken up- yet I was still in a half- awake state- and thought about moving I heard the man who was holding my head in between his hands starting to talk. "Hey, sch, sch, sch. Don't move" I felt my breathing getting slower and more shallow without really being able to slow it down. "Sch sweetheart." He comforted- or more likely tried to comfort. "You need to keep still." His voice was strict, yet calm and kind- and I didn't know what else to do than to listen to what he told me. "Can you tell me your name dear?"

"Br…" I began starting to say my own, real name but quickly interrupted myself and tried to remember what name I had used earlier. The cashier and the police were standing around and I didn't want to risk them start to count something out if I used different names. "Jessica Fae" I said at last. The man smiled slightly just as the sirens of an ambulance started echoing somewhere far away yet only barely close enough for me to hear.

"My name is Carlisle… Dr. Carlisle Cullen." He presented himself not moving his hands from their spots at the sides of my head and neck. And to try to get a glimpse of what he was doing I looked to the side as long as I could without turning my head to try and catch a glimpse of his hands. "Hey it's okay. Don't move your head." He seemed to realize what I was trying to do. "I'm just stabilizing your neck- in case you hurt it in the fall you need to keep it still."

I closed my eyes, I really had made a fool out of myself with everything. Now I would end up in hospital and by tomorrow I would be back with my dad- or rather the man people said and believed was my dad. But he couldn't never be my dad- a dad wouldn't do the things that my father had done to me.

… "_BREE YOU BRAT" I heard my father come into the room and he grabbed my shirt from behind, lifted me up and threw me down to the floor. Before I had the time to get up he had pulled his arm backwards and held the other one pressed towards my chest with a steady grip of my shirt to hold me down onto the floor. _

"_Dad…" _

"_Dad…. DAD…. Well if you want me to be that then say something, excuse what you've done, make my time worth yours. Say something that will make it better to the point so I won't have to give up on you…. _

I didn't notice my breathing getting faster until Dr. Cullen started trying to make me calm down again just as the ambulance pulled over by us and the paramedics came rushing and put me on a stretcher. "Let me go." I breathed but no one seemed to hear as they put something on the sides of my neck. "LET ME GO." I shouted and tried to move but they held me still. "LET ME GO, LET ME GO, LET ME

I heard the paramedics and Dr. Cullen speak to me but I couldn't understand what they were saying. I had to get away from here and run, run for my life, from my feelings, from everything that hurt so much I didn't quite know how to deal with it "LET ME GO!"

_..."LET ME GO" I shouted to my dad's friend Max who held my arms behind my back and held me still while dad and two of their other friends took their blows. "LET ME GO. SAY SOMETHING I CAN DO. JUST SAY WHAT I CAN DO AND I'LL DO IT IF YOU DON'T HURT ME."… _

I hadn't yet noticed it, but tears were spurting from my eyes a lot faster than either I or anyone else would have the time to wipe them away. When I was shouting my voice was hoarse and breaking and sobs- one after one and faster and faster were escaping my throat until I just couldn't bear shouting anymore- and that's when I finally noticed I was crying.

"Please let me go." It was barely more than a whisper and I didn't really expect anyone to hear. "I'll give back what I took, I'll do anything just as long as you'll let me go." I still didn't realize that I was sobbing wildly even though my speaking was cut off by it. And I still hadn't thought anyone would hear, but Dr. Cullen did.

"I'm sorry child." He said in a soft, comforting tone. "We need to take you to the hospital."

I couldn't go to the hospital. I really couldn't! "NO" I shouted and tried sitting up and pushing the other backwards, held down by the stretcher, straps and the stupid thing around my neck. "NO LET ME GO" I really couldn't go to the hospital. As soon as they would have found out who I really was they would call up the man said to be my father, and then I would be back with him again. Back on square one and end up getting killed from running away in the first place.

"Let me go." I couldn't keep on shouting when uncontrolled sobbing wrenched my whole body. "Let me go. Let me go." Dr. Cullen leaned over me again and yet I barely felt anything as he poked something into my arm and pushed it to cause the fluid to go into my system. "Let me go." It was something in between a mumble and a whisper the last time I tried to make my voice heard before I drifted off and let myself be embraced by a soft, safe darkness.

When you're sleeping, or when you black out, go unconscious in any way. Then the second you open your eyes feels like the same second that you closed them. You're not aware of that what might have been anything from just a second to several years have passed by during that one split second until you wake up again and have got a hang of time again.

I used to always wish that it would last longer, to have something to look forward to, just drift away and spend a few hours or whatever just drifting around in that one safe, soft dark without pain, without demons haunting you, stress or angst in any way. But yet you never do- and yet there probably wasn't one time when I had wished for it as badly as I did right now.

But that was when the sleep was without dreaming- I dreamt often, and then the unconsciousness wasn't so pleasant. Then I could just as well have kept awake, because either way- it would be a nightmare.

When I felt that I started to drift back to reality I pressed my eyes shut as hard as I could to try and drift off again. Anything to just pull out on it a little bit longer and to not have to go back to face reality. Make everything blurry and dark again until it just flew together so I couldn't- and wouldn't have to deal with a single piece of it.

But of course that was not what happened, I could hear footsteps- from reality coming closer and then someone laid something that felt like freezing cold fingers towards my eyelid, pulled the eyelid open and lit with a flashlight into my eyes. "Hey" I croaked and tried lifting my hands to push whatever it was away. "Stop it"

When- after what felt like ages to me whoever it was pulled away the flashlight and took away his freezing cold hands from my face I could see it was Dr. Cullen- the man from earlier with his hair still pulled back- and something I hadn't noticed before even though I had always been one to notice weird details- wrinkles around his eyes that made him look tired and older than what he probably was.

"Good morning child. Can you follow this with your eyes without moving your head?" He laid his hand on my head again and it seemed hard as stone and cold as ice. Was he always this cold? He pulled up the flashlight again and moved it back and forth slowly while I- all the while, while I let my eyes follow it holding my head still. "That's good."

I was still lying at some kind of gurney, and with some kind of equipment by both sides and around my neck. It wouldn't even have been possible to move my head if I had tried, but I followed Dr. Cullen with my vision as he walked over to a cupboard and kneeled down to get something. "We had to give you some sedatives at the place because you fighting like that might have caused even more damage if you would have hurt your spine." He pulled out a metal item from the cupboard and came over to me. "Can you feel this?" He pulled the item along my foot sole. "Don't nod or shake your head just answer yes or no."

"Yes."

"This?" He pulled it towards my leg, and I answered him yes again. "Any pain in your back or neck." I hesitated and felt and then answered him no. "It seems like you've broken your wrist and you've got a cut on your forehead that needs stitches. I'll send you up to an X ray and if I can't see any damage onto the spine on the pictures I can remove these things. Sounds good?" I made an attempt to shrug- then answered him whatever when it didn't work.

Whatever wasn't an answer I'd usually give. I would probably try to be at least a bit more polite than to answer just whatever but right now it seemed like the best answer to give. Anything that would just pull out on the time I had to stay in the hospital without anyone knowing who I was or where I came from would be alright. It would be the best just so I wouldn't risk getting sent back.

Dr. Cullen smiled and looked through some papers lying on the bedside table next to me, and then mumbled something about getting an x- ray and walked out the room. Immediately I started looking around after ways to run and I desperately tugged the straps holding me to the gurney and whatever the equipment was.

"So" Dr. Cullen came over again. "I'll just go get some nurses that will push you up to the X- ray- floor. Don't worry, you've got nothing to be afraid for." He left the room and just a few minutes later two women in nurse- scrubs came in and pushed the bunk out of the room and through the hallway. Not to see anyone looking at me as we came through the ER I closed my eyes- wow- why did they all have to stare so much?

"Just lay still" The nurse at the X- ray said. "I will just go behind this wall to take the photo." She jogged around the wall, the big machine gave a sound, then again, and again, and again. "And so we are done here." She leaned out the door and the same nurses that had pushed slash pulled me to the X- ray came and took me back to the room I had been in earlier where I was left alone.

I did try to get off the damn gurney, but the straps held my arms and legs attached to it and I couldn't move enough to get any of them off, so I just had to admit to myself that I wasn't going anywhere and to have something to do I laid there and sang to myself. "Happy birthday to me- happy birthday to me, happy birthday de…" before I had the time to finish the song the door was opened and Dr. Cullen came in.

"Hello sweetheart." He said and put up my X- ray pictures on some chart on the wall. "You've broken your wrist, we're going to put it in a cast, that cut on your forehead we have temporary taped but it's going to need stitches. There doesn't seem to be any harm done on your back or neck or anything though so I think we can remove this." He came over and unstrapped the thing around my neck and the gurney and told me to move over to the bunk as he removed the board. "That's better isn't it?" He moved the bed so I could sit up. "To be able to actually move." I didn't answer as he brought out equipment to stitch up the wound on my forehead. "This is just local anesthesia," He put up a syringe he had filled with something. "I'm going to put it around that cut so it doesn't hurt when I sow it okay?" I shrugged, I was pretty annoyed by all the doctor's talk- but I didn't want to interrupt as I thought that it might pull out on the time until something would make me have to tell who I really was.

Dr. Cullen smiled slightly as he leaned over me and started stitching up the wound, I couldn't see much else because he had put this paper- thing to see exactly where the wound was or whatever so I just pulled up my legs to cross them and sat like that while he stitched the wound up. "So that's it." He took away the paper- thing and laid it to the side. "Now you can show off with eleven stitches in your forehead- you'll need to go back to the hospital in ten days to get the stitches out."

Ten days- oh! Well there was no way I was going to be able to be here again in ten days. But I kept silent and didn't look at him anymore. I looked down at my hand. It had started to get swollen- and I couldn't understand why Dr. Cullen would prioritize stitching up the wound instead of putting a cast or a splint around my arm. He seemed to read my thoughts as I looked to the hand and then raised an eyebrow towards him.

"We're a bit busy today." He said. "Otherwise I would have taken someone else in too to get you a cast. But for the moment I'm the only one free, I waited with the cast to wait and see if maybe a splint would be better." He carefully took my hurt hand and pulled a kind of table closer that he carefully lifted my hand onto.

I flinched from the pain shooting through my arm, he looked up and apologized but I didn't take any notice of his excuse. I was used to this, I would have to go to the hospital- a new hospital every time and get a cast or whatever was needed for the injuries my dad had caused the last time I hadn't done what he wanted- the last time I had been lying on the floor wherever in our flat and taken blow after blow, and kick after kick.

"Miss? Miss?" Dr. Cullen's voice woke me up from my thoughts. "Are you okay?" I shook my head to come back to reality and nodded, answered him I was okay and pretended as if I hadn't been thinking about anything special.

I could tell Dr. Cullen didn't buy my lie about "it's nothing I just zoned out for a moment" in the way he looked at me with distressed eyes. But he didn't say anything else as he slightly touched my wrist with his ice cold fingers and then stood up. "I think a splint will do better at this point" he said. "I'll just go to ortho and get that splint. Hold that hand still alright?" I nodded while he pushed the door open to the room and then just waited.

Dr. Cullen seemed nice, but it just wasn't enough. Loads of people had seemed to be nice to me in the beginning to later turn into monsters in front of my eyes- or just disappeared. I couldn't let that happen now- not again!

And yet I wished that Dr. Cullen could say something- act somehow to make me believe his words about that I would be alright or that he wasn't going to hurt me. I had heard him say it at least ten times at the street, a few times again now in the hospital.

But I just couldn't believe him

For a moment I had hoped that he would say something.

But my hope was gone since long and it was of no intention of returning.

**Carlisle POV **

There were people in the stairways so I couldn't run as fast as I would have wanted as I took small jumps taking two stairs in each step up to the orthopedics apartment where I got in and searched in the storage room for a splint in the right size for the young girl- I wasn't sure she was telling us the truth about her name- actually I was pretty sure she wasn't because I had heard her starting "br…" something when I asked about her name and then hesitated.

My pager beeped and I quickly- yet human- speed- pulled it up to see that the one paging me- whoever it was- was from home. I had told both the kids, Esme and Bella that they were allowed to page me- but only if it was something very, very important. So now I got a strange, worried feeling, was Bella hurt… again? Had we heard anything from the Volturi or Victoria?

I knew they wouldn't page me if it wasn't something very important so I looked around the hallway I was in and then slipped into a storage room pulling up my cellphone of my pocket- vampire speed pressing the number fast and putting the phone to my ear.

"Carlisle?" Alice's voice was heard in the phone. And before I had the time to ask what it was she had continued. "The girl you're going to put a splint on her wrist- do not send her home. If you do someone will abuse her- I don't know who yet but it will happen if you send her home."

I may have been a vampire, always cold. But right then I felt- as if the humans had said it- as my whole inside froze. "What?" I didn't know what else to say as I sat down on an empty shelf and listened to Alice's voice speaking to my fast.

"I saw it in a vision. If you get contact with her family and send her home she will be abused. I haven't seen who it is but she will be so… you need to find a way not to send her home until we know more okay? Please Carlisle- we cannot just let her go home to someone who will. Someone who will…" She seemed to be searching for the right words while I interrupted and answered.

"Of course I won't send her home if it means she'll get hurt." I sighed. "I'll think of someone okay darling? Don't you worry about this." She thanked me- and then- without another word she hung up and left the phone to hoot in my ear before I turned it off and put it back in my pocket where no one would see I had used it during work- time.

I walked out in the hallway again, jogged down to another storage room and got the right splint for the young woman's hand and wrist, and a bandage and a roll with tape to put it on. While- this time slowly walking down the stairs brainstorming for a way to let this girl come home with me instead of getting caught up at the hospital- though of course- I'd have to ask her first- I walked over to the room that for the moment was but hers and held her fingers in my hand to stretch the arm out while I put the splint on.

**Bree POV **

"So do you want to tell me your real name?" Dr. Cullen glanced up at me while he put a bandage around my arm and hand to keep the splint in place. I flinched but Dr. Cullen immediately gripped harder around my hand to hold my arm still. "Keep that arm still I'm almost done" he told me. "And don't worry, I'm not going to make you say it. Although, if you just told us maybe it would be easier for us to help you."

I shook my head slightly and felt my heart beating in my chest and the blood streaming in my ears. "Hey…" Dr. Cullen had finished fixing with the bandage and now took my other hand in his, wrapping his ice cold- and for some reason also stone hard fingers around my smaller and warm. "It's okay, I am not going to make you tell me anything you don't want to tell me." He smiled softly, a smile that seemed to spread all up to his eyes- like it would never do for most people I knew.

"I'm sorry." I whispered under my breath. So quietly I didn't think Dr. Cullen would be able to hear me. But he smiled and told me there was nothing to be sorry for. He seemed like there was more he wanted to say as he opened his mouth and breathed in, but before he had the time to, the door behind my back flew open with a bang and- before I had the time to remember I was at a hospital hours and hours away from where my dad was I had jumped off the bunk.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Dr. Cullen caught me right when my feet had touched the floor. "It's okay, it's just my daughter and son." I tried to push him away, make him let go off me so I could push the other door open and run for what felt like it would be running for my own life. But Dr. Cullen didn't let go or let himself get pushed away by me.

And then suddenly I felt all calm, it was like I first was all afraid and then… then I wasn't, and it was almost as if warmth had spread in my whole body all the way out in my fingers and toes of calm. I couldn't really describe the feeling with anything else than a sudden feeling of being all calm and I couldn't for my life figure out where it came from, but it was there.

I slowly stepped away from Dr. Cullen and wrapped my arms around me for at least some protection while I turned around towards the people that had just come inside, the boy standing right inside the door and the girl a few meters into the room not keeping still for a moment as she seemed to look me up and down.

Right inside the door stood a boy- perhaps late high-school or early college age, his hair was light brown, quite long and pulled back, his eyes dark brown and his skin- just like the girl's and Dr. Cullen's was pale. He was tall but the girl on the other hand was sort and had dark, short, spiky hair- her eyes were lighter than the boys but darker than Dr. Cullen's- yet it was something in that brown color that seemed so alike between them all, I noticed the girl also had very nice clothes of kinds that I would never be able to afford.

I had always been one to notice such details. Sometimes that would make the difference about how much my father would hurt me or not with people coming over

I woke up from my thoughts with another boy coming into the room, he was quite tall, had bronze- colored hair and brown eyes in the same similar color to the others standing around the room- except for me then of course.

"This is my daughter Alice," Dr. Cullen pointed to the girl… wait? Daughter? Dr. Cullen seemed to read my thoughts as I looked from one to the other with a confused look on my face that I knew was there. "Oh… yeah, a bit young to have children that age? Me and my wife- we can't have children on our own so we have adopted some teenagers. Alice" he pointed with the whole hand towards the girl. "Is our adoptive daughter, Edward" He pointed to the bronze- haired- boy. "Is too. While Jasper." He pointed to the boy who still stood by the door with a tensed expression that made it look like he was in pain. "And his sister Rosalie- they're fostered, and we also have another adoptive son named Emmett."

The thoughts were spinning in my head- So these teenagers and a couple of others were adopted by a couple that couldn't be even ten years older than themselves, and Dr. Cullen and his wife… I wanted to ask something but I forced myself not to

…_."NO questions I SAID" Dad put his bottle down with a loud bang and turned to me. "WHEN will you UNDERSTAND BRAT?" I bit my lip and wished that I was somewhere else- or at least that I had never asked him a question… _

"Miss? Miss? Are you alright?" A bright light- that I soon realized came from a flashlight that Dr. Cullen held. When I blinked and shook my head he let go of my head and removed the flashlight from my face while again asking if I was alright and putting the flashlight back in his pocket. I was still so zoned out I had to think for a moment before answering him that everything was alright, I just dreamed away for a little while.

Dr. Cullen frowned as if he didn't believe me, but at least he didn't ask me any other questions. "Kids." He looked past me and to the three teenagers behind me. "I need to go and have a little talk with these. Are you alright there?" I nodded. Why wouldn't I be? For some reason Carlisle laid a hand on Jasper's shoulder blade and wrapped his fingers slightly around the fabric of the younger man's jacket as they walked out of the room.

I pulled up my legs to sit Indian style with my elbow on my knee and my cheek resting hard on my fist. "Happy birthday to me." I hummed grumpily. "Happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Bree girl, happy birthday to me."

For a moment I didn't care if anyone would hear me. Not even if they would hear me mouth my own real name. For a moment I almost wished someone would hear so they could know that it was my birthday- it wasn't that I liked my birthday- I hated it now just as much as ever- but at least one birthday wish…

I had been through a lot of crappy birthdays in my sixteen years old life, but this one really took the prize.

"I hate today."

I might as well have it said. "I hate today." I said today, my voice on the verge of breaking as I curled up into a ball and fought my hardest not to cry. "I hate today, I hate today, I hate today, I hate today." And I only kept on fighting even though tears had started rolling down my cheeks and my voice was breaking more and more

I looked out the windows that were in the wall between my room and the hallway, most of them walking by were doctors or nurses, but here and there, there came some patient, some of them were pushing IV's by them, others seemed to be on their way home, a woman walked by cradling a new- born baby

And everything seemed to move in slow motion as I watched the new mother cradling her baby.

Had my mother ever been cradling me like that? Before she left? Or whatever happened…

The lump in my throat grew bigger, what a tremendously awful birthday this was. The tears rolled even faster down my cheeks and yet I fought as hard as I could not to cry anymore, even though it was maybe very much too late.

…"_Awww" Dad looked to me while he spoke in an ironic tone in his voice. "Did your big, scary, mean daddy make you cry? Poor little baby…. No seriously get up" he grabbed my shirt and lifted me up and then pushed me towards the door to the basement stairs. "Get me a drink you brat, don't believe you'll get away from things only because it's your birthday." _

_I turned around and looked to my dad, for some reason I was happy. And maybe it was for knowing that he knew it was my birthday- that at least he hadn't forgotten what day it was. Maybe that was something at least…. _

I lost count of time of how long I lied like that. With my legs pulled up under me and hugging myself, I was crying worse than ever but still too trying more than ever not to. I never stopped trying not to cry, not even when the sobs were starting to fade off by themselves and- exhausted by what had happened through the morning and forenoon I drifted off.

**Carlisle POV **

After leaving the young girl's room I grabbed onto Jasper's coat to be able to grab him fast if I would have to. I didn't get why they had come here really- or I did- but I had told them not to under any circumstances bring Jasper here- it would be too dangerous if we had some trauma coming in and Jasper smelled the blood.

I kept my fingers wrapped around the back of Jasper's coat walking with Alice and Edward right after us through the hallway in the down parts of the Emergency room and then out in the stairs and into a storage room where there was a back door leading out to the parking lot and first then I turned to the others- though still with a steady grip around Jasper's coat.

"Her name is Bree." Was the first thing spoken- from Edward. "There is a man. He's got dark, short hair but is going bald, he's big, he hurts her- but I didn't catch a name or what kind of relationship they have other than that he hurts her." Edward silent and looked down at Alice to hear if she had gotten any more from her visions but she shook her head.

"No surname, a man- but I don't know who he is. And he will get her if you send her home. That's all I know." I sighed, the man could of course be her dad- but it could be a friend of her parents', a teacher, a friend of hers or anybody. "Carlisle…" Alice spoke again and I knew from the sparkle in her eye she was thinking about something I might not agree to. "I saw that you had to cut that girl's clothes off, and I have seen that she haven't got any more clothes". I sighed, I should have known.

"Well go off and get her something then Alice." I gestured them to the door. "But Jasper, don't come back here you know why you shouldn't." I opened the door. "And only walk over to the trees there" I pointed to the forest starting on the other side of the parking lot. "When you have come into the trees you can run." I closed the door behind Edward and then walk back into the ER, I was meaning to go check on- well- Bree. But I didn't have the time before my pager went off and I had to run up to the OR and do surgery on one who had been in a car accident.

And I knew that only one of the problems we had now was that we couldn't call Bree by her name- unless she told us it herself- because how would I explain where I had gotten it from- I was told it by my son Edward who read minds? No- and there wouldn't be another legal way that I could have gotten to hear her name so… well… we'd just have to wait.

There was another two hours before I could get downstairs into the ER again and could go down to check on Bree. The head of the bed was still raised but Bree had pulled up her knees and hugged them so she was hugging herself. On her pale cheeks it would be easy even with human vision that there had been rolling tears, and yet she seemed to be deeply asleep. Far away in the dream world, and she barely reacted when I took out a blanket from a cupboard and spread it over her.

**Bree POV **

I usually didn't really like falling asleep, when I didn't dream I liked it. Zoning out for a moment from all the pain, but every night I'd have nightmares about being in a dark room, hearing his evil laugh and voice echoing around me, spinning around faster and faster trying to find a door out from that damned room as my breathing got faster and faster and heavier and heavier until I just screamed and collapsed on the floor with my arms over my head.

But that wasn't the dream I had tonight, it started of the same with me in that dark room- or whatever it was. Then I heard footsteps coming closer, it was still dark but I felt an arm around my shoulders and someone lead me to turn around and to a light I had never seen before towards a door.

Coming through the door the person who held an arm around my shoulders moved. Her eyes were brown, her hair too, and she was pretty short yet curvy. Dr. Cullen stood there too, as well as Alice, Jasper and Edward. Alongside a beautiful girl with long, blonde hair that I had never met before and a big- grown guy with short dark hair.

And I just knew I was safe

**Carlisle POV **

Almost an hour after my shift actually ended Alice came back into the emergency room with a group of bags from God knows all stores. I couldn't help but chuckle at everything she had brought and then grabbed a plastic bag from one of the storage rooms to pack everything in until Bree woke up- because she was still asleep and not even I could have the heart to wake her up.

I got out Bree's files and wrote in it that we were keeping her here for observation overnight. Then I walked into the room of the young girl, she had stretched out and I lowered the head of the bed to make it more comfortable for her, but she barely even moved and I sat down and looked to her, whispering too silently for human ears to catch.

"Oh Bree." I whispered. "I wish you could only tell us who you are and who is hurting you so we could help." I wanted to lift my hand and stroke her forehead but I understood that if I did I'd wake her up with my cold hands, so I just stayed there with my hands shoved in my pockets and my chin lowered until I heard the door to the room open, and without looking back I could tell by her smell that it was the enrolled nurse named Lori McKenna that came in.

"Dr. Cullen." She spoke- I had given up on trying to make her call me by my first name. "You must be exhausted, you've been here for almost twelve hours. Come on… you go home and get a good night's sleep yeah and I'll keep an eye on this girl for the night?" I shook my head- no I'd stay. "Come on now Dr. Cullen, no one will do good of you staying here being too tired to function. Come on… go home… I'll make sure she doesn't go anywhere."

I bit my lip, I knew Lori- she wasn't going to give up on this- as the staff's mother hen so I smiled and did my best to look tired. "Thank you Lori… but listen to me now. Make sure this girl does not leave the hospital during the night okay?" Lori nodded and then more or less pushed me out of the room where I went over to the staff's room and then down in the basement to leave my scrubs before walking out to the parking lot.

Of course- since I was a vampire I didn't need any sleep. But I spent the whole night lying on my bed staring up in the ceiling trying to find a way that would make it easier for the young girl to tell us what was hurting her so bad and make it easier for us to help her.

And so the next day I walked through the hallways at the emergency room to find room number 14 B empty. "Lori" I caught up with the nurse. "Where's the…" I hadn't had the time to finish the sentence before the woman in her mid- twenties interrupted and said everything so fast that if my hearing had been of the human kind- it would have been hard catching the words she said.

"I am so, so sorry Dr. Cullen. Someone recognized Miss Tanner as a runaway from some pictures on the news and managed to call up her dad- he was just here and got her…" I asked her what he looked like to check if it was the same man who Edward and Alice had seen. "Big- grown, dark, short hair, going on bal…" I didn't have the time to listen to more, I might be right or not- and I prayed to God I was wrong this time.

"Listen to me Lori, if this is a worst case scenario her dad is a person who physically abuses her… we need to find her…. Now. How long is it since they left?" She answered me maybe five minutes, I turned around and ran human speed down the hallway and towards the parking lot calling up my children to have them take each car and look for the girl- we might be wrong- but if I was right- I would rather find her and be wrong than doing nothing at all.

**Bree POV **

I sat and pressed myself up as far as possible towards the inside of the car door in the passenger seat by the seat that my- or the one that was said to be my father sat and steered his car further and further into the forest with the bag with the clothes we had gotten from the hospital or wherever from in the back seat.

"Come on" father said at last. "Get out of the van." I carefully stepped out and walked up to face my father. He seemed a million times bigger than he usually seemed, but that was when I decided not to take it anymore. I had gotten a taste on what life could be without punches, kicks, insults and all that, so before he had the time to make any harm I had jumped forward and kneed him where I could reach

Right in the groin

Dad fell to his knees- I might be small- but I was strong- and bony! So before he had the time to get up again I turned around and ran through the trees without looking back, the wind of speed blowing my hair backwards as I only ran and ran and ran. I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop. I wasn't going to stop. Because I was never going back to that man.

It felt like forever before I saw a car- road between the trees, and as I heard Alexander Tanner coming shouting after me I sped all the way up- jumping out right in front of a tree. "AH" Right in the last moment as my palms hit the front of the car the car braked and I was safe and could breathe out as a man I easily recognized stepped out and came jogging over to me.

And before I had the time to change my mind I had told Dr. Cullen everything. I had told him about my dad and his friends, I had told him what dad had told me about that my mum left when I was little- even though I had a strange feeling about it, I told him about how I ran away from where I lived with him before but fell and hit my head and all about that.

Dr. Cullen- or Carlisle as he later asked me to call him took a step forward towards me and lifted me up to be able to hug me, held his arms wrapped around me and then just held me like that while I started crying again and didn't seem to be able to stop. "Sch, sch, sch." He said softly. "It's okay, I'll make sure it will be okay now."

And for what was the very first time- yet it was at least the millionth time someone had told me that. I believed in him. And it wasn't that long later that some dreams that you dream at night- as well as some daydreams about having parents and a real family- it can come true.

And I knew it could come true after it was what the Cullen's taught me.

**So… that's it then… the fun thing is, this present is a bit late so ActressCeCe's birthday was eleven days ago- instead I managed to get this up on my own birthday which is today. So even though it's a bit late- happy belated birthday ActressCeCe. I hope you had a great day then, and I hope you have a great day now. **


End file.
